During the month of May President Thiers made a number of changes in the ministry, which, as they were not accepted as sufficiently conservative by the members of the right, placed him again in sharp opposition to that portion of the assembly, and precipitated the decisive conflict which had so long been threatening between the executive and the majority of the legislature. Thiers himself brought about the crisis by urging in an address to the assembly on May 24 the definitive establishment of the republic. This definition of his policy and that of the new ministry had indeed been forced upon him by an interpellation presented by the right, with the evident intention of compelling a vote upon his explanation, which should be decisive in regard to the continuance of himself and the ministry in power. Accordingly, no sooner had the president ended his address than the right presented an order of the day refusing to consider the form of government as under discussion, and regretting that the new ministry did not afford sufficient guarantees of a conservative policy.

This, which was equivalent to a vote of want of confidence, was passed by the close vote of 360 to 344. Thiers and the ministry at once sent in their resignations, which were accepted; and Marshal MacMahon was in the same sitting chosen president of the republic. The important events of MacMahon's administration have thus far been comparatively few. For a time after his election, and especially during the summer, there seemed a probability that the efforts of the legitimists to restore a monarchy under the count de Charnbord (in whose favor the Orleanist branch of the Bourbons had agreed to yield their claim) might be successful. Many monarchists were appointed to office; the party daily gained in apparent influence; the celebration of the anniversary of the declaration of the republic on Sept. 4 was forbidden; and the hopes of the legitimists appeared to be on the point of fulfilment, when they were suddenly brought to an end by the letter of the count de Chambord to M. de Chesnelong on Oct. 30, in which he distinctly refused to make the concessions that were necessary to the acceptance by the assembly of a monarchy under his rule, and declared his determined adherence to the white flag of the Bourbons. After the recess of the assembly from July 27 to Nov. 5, the opening message of President MacMahon called for action to secure some degree of permanence and stability to the government.

The right demanded that the executive power be conferred on MacMa-hon for a term of ten years. By a compromise this was lessened; and in the night of the 19th-20th a law was passed making his term seven years. One of the most important events subsequent to this was the conclusion of the long trial of Marshal Bazaine, by a court martial of which the duke d'Aumale was president, on a charge of treason in surrendering his army and the fortress of Metz without sufficient cause. On Dec. 10 he was found guilty and sentenced to death; which sentence was commuted by President MacMahon to 20 years' seclusion, after degradation from his rank. The payment of the last instalment of the war indemnity had taken place on Sept. 5, and by the 16th France was free from foreign occupation. During the period since the war her material prosperity has been restored with remarkable rapidity; new commercial treaties with Great Britain and Belgium were approved in July, 1873; and French industries and trade have again reached an entirely normal condition. But the political situation continued to be unsettled in the early part of 1874, owing to the systematic agitation of monarchists against the republican institutions of the country, to which new elections in various departments have given repeated sanction.

On March 16, the 18th birthday of the prince imperial, the Bonapartists celebrated his majority at Chiselhurst, hailing him as Napoleon IV.; to which he replied in a set speech, appealing to the decision of a new plebiscite. Foreign relations also continued complicated; the German empire proposed increased armaments, avowedly from fear of French retaliation, and emphatically evinced its determination to wield a paramount influence in Italian and eastern affairs. The cabinet of the duke de Broglie resigned May 16, in consequence of the defeat of the electoral bill, and was succeeded on the 22d by one under Gen. de Cissey as minister of war, composed of anti-republicans, and with little prospect of stability. (See MacMahon.)